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Category Archives for "Networking"

Fast & Furious with Mellanox

“Your data center is so cool!”  

That’s the common reaction to web-IT data center networks architected for data-intensive workloads and unprecedented agility. Clos designs optimized for east-west traffic flows and standard layer 3 protocols with ECMP have replaced brittle 3-tier Cisco-style layer 2 networks.  DevOps with a true Linux network operating system (AKA “NetDevOps”) enables secure, reliable configuration management and automated lifecycle management while converging on a common set of tools and processes across compute, storage, and networking. What’s really cool is the high speed interconnects in fat tree network designs.

10G and 40G leaf/spine networks were the standards last year. This year, 25G connected hosts and 100G spines are emerging as the desired interconnect, aligned with the latest Xeon-based servers with Broadwell cores. With the 25/50/100G inflection, many new merchant silicon entrants have hit the market, and Cisco announced proprietary ASICs for the Nexus 9200/9300 with availability at the end of the year. But, why wait?  25/50/100G Spectrum-based switches from Mellanox with Cumulus Linux are available now.    

The joint Mellanox Spectrum and Cumulus Linux solution enables an open platform, unlocked performance, and unleashed innovation. Cumulus Linux is based on an open framework enabling customers of all Continue reading

Welcome to the club OS X users: First Mac-targeting ransomware detected in the wild

Welcome to the club, OS X users, since you are now vulnerable to ransomware infections and popular cybercriminal extortion schemes. The Transmission BitTorrent client has the dubious honor of being chosen as the first target to deliver Mac ransomware.On Saturday, OS X Transmission users who had downloaded version 2.90 took to the forum to report “OSX.KeRanger.A” malware. On Sunday, Palo Alto Network researchers Claud Xiao and Jin Chen revealed that on March 4 they had detected the “first fully functional ransomware seen on the OS X platform.” Attackers had infected two Transmission version 2.90 installers with KeRanger.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The 6 hottest new jobs in IT

When CompTIA conducted an intensive examination of the IT employment market last year, it uncovered demand for jobs whose titles would have been meaningless only a year or two ago: augmented reality designer, Internet of things architect, container developers.That’s no surprise, given that the IT job market is in constant flux, with new technologies emerging so quickly that hiring managers struggle to define those positions -- let alone give them a title. IBM, for example, has a director of blockchains, and Ford Motor is among many companies looking for GPU cluster engineers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon provides a behind the scenes look at data breaches

Interesting detailsImage by ThinkstockThe Verizon RISK Team performs cyber investigations for hundreds of commercial enterprises and government agencies annually across the globe. In 2015, they investigated more than 500 cybersecurity incidents. They shared some of the details in a recent report of how they solved the cyber crimes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple exec takes to op-ed page, argues against turning back the clock to ‘less-secure time’

Apple's head of software engineering took to The Washington Post's op-ed page Sunday to reprise many of the arguments the company -- and supporters -- have made to contest a federal court order that would compel it to help the FBI break into a passcode-locked iPhone."The encryption technology built into today's iPhone represents the best data security available to consumers," asserted Craig Federighi, vice president of software engineering at Apple, in a piece published by the newspaper yesterday. But "the FBI, Justice Department and others in law enforcement are pressing us to turn back the clock to a less-secure time and less-secure technologies."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New products of the week 3.7.16

New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.cVu 3240NGKey features: cPacket cVu 3240NG is the most powerful distributed Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics (NPMD) solution on the market, delivering proactive real-time analysis, 40G line-rate performance analytics and complete packet inspection across L2-L7. More info.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Does your company need an innovation lab?

Innovation takes time – and money, and people and resources. That’s why it’s common for a company to focus on core business activities and not build an innovation lab – a specific building or department dedicated to working on prototypes and fleshing out ideas. Part of the issue is that it can be difficult to justify and quantify the budget involved. Is it a skunkworks project that will consume resources but not deliver any value? Is it a purely a showcase for engineering prowess, or will the concepts produce real products? For many IT leaders, it’s hard to overcome the stigma of an innovation lab as a financial drain. “Innovation labs are regularly knocked because they often don't have clearly defined links to specific business strategies or goals,” says Charles King, an analyst with PUND-IT. “But that's also the basis of their appeal. In essence, innovation labs create a ‘safe’ space where an organization can explore unconventional, even radical ideas in hopes of inspiring changes or new opportunities that could enhance its business.” To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New products of the week 3.7.16

New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.cVu 3240NGKey features: cPacket cVu 3240NG is the most powerful distributed Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics (NPMD) solution on the market, delivering proactive real-time analysis, 40G line-rate performance analytics and complete packet inspection across L2-L7. More info.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Suspected Bush family hacker Guccifer to be extradited to US

Romania's highest court has approved the temporary extradition of a convicted hacker accused of breaking into the email and social media accounts of a Bush family member and U.S. government officials.The court ruled Friday that Romanian national Marcel Lehel Lazăr will be extradited to the U.S. for a maximum of 18 months to face charges brought against him there.Lazăr was indicted in June 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, accused of hacking into the email and social media accounts of high-profile victims including a family member of two former U.S. presidents, a former U.S. Cabinet member, a former member of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a former presidential adviser.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The ultimate hackathon survival guide

Name a city, pick a date, and you’ll likely find a nearby hackathon, whether you’re in Des Moines, Iowa, or Yerevan, Armenia.Major League Hacking lists over 100 hackathons held in 2015 at a college or university, while Hacker League lists an additional 200-plus hosted by corporations and other organizations. Some hackathons are virtual and conducted on the Web, and there’s even a three-day event that takes place on a bus.If you’ve never attended one, however, it can seem like a daunting endeavor, with the all-night coding sessions, over-caffeinated attendees, pressure to produce under time constraints and the niggling fear that you’re not skilled enough.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Inside Bank of America’s IT transformation

Over the past decade Bank of America has grown by leaps and bounds internally and through an array of mergers and acquisitions. From a technical standpoint, that growth has created a complex and disparate set of data centers, computing architectures and vendor relationships.For CTO David Reilly, there was an obvious goal: Standardize on more efficient infrastructure. For a company that spends $3 billion on technology each year – nearly double the amount it did five years earlier – any reduced expenditures translate directly to improved bottom line profitability for the bank. Transitioning to a shared virtualized computing platform not only drove savings in the IT organization, but net profit for the bank. But soon Reilly realized that standardizing and virtualizing was not enough. He wanted to start all over again.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple shuts down first-ever ransomware attack against Mac users

With the help of security researchers, Apple over the weekend quickly blocked a cyberattack aimed at infecting Mac users with file-encrypting malware known as ransomware.The incident is believed to be the first Apple-focused attack using ransomware, which typically targets computers running Windows.Victims of ransomware are asked to pay a fee, usually in bitcoin, to get access to the decryption key to recover their files.Security company Palo Alto Networks wrote on Sunday that it found the "KeRanger" ransomware wrapped into Transmission, which is a free Mac BitTorrent client. Transmission warned on its website that people who downloaded the 2.90 version of the client "should immediately upgrade to 2.92."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here